Unresolved Behavior: Sorting Localized Dates in DataTables

Goal

Display dates in the user’s local timezone while preserving correct chronological order in a DataTable.

Constraints

• Server returns UTC timestamps in ISO 8601.
• Client-side rendering uses the DataTables render callback.
• External libraries such as Moment.js are deprecated; Intl.DateTimeFormat or Luxon are preferred.

Unresolved Behavior

When the column renders a localized date string without an explicit sort key, DataTables falls back to alphabetical sorting, which misorders dates that share the same locale format.

Questions

• Which approach should I adopt to supply a stable sort key alongside a localized string when using the render function?
• Can the data-order attribute be generated dynamically from the rendered value to ensure correct sorting?
• Does the built‑in datetime rendering plugin support timezone conversion without Moment.js, and if so, how?